Planned Parenthood sues to halt Alaska's telehealth abortion safety law

Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky filed a lawsuit in Anchorage on Thursday to halt Alaska's law requiring abortionists to meet their clients in person at a hospital or abortion business.

Key Takeaways:

• A Planned Parenthood affiliate in Alaska is suing to overturn the state's law prohibiting telehealth distribution of the abortion pill.

• The lawsuit seeks a temporary injunction on the law, which it says is unconstitutional.

• The abortion pill is dangerous to women, and those dangers are compounded when it is distributed without an in-person visit with a doctor.

The Details:

The lawsuit claims that the telehealth abortion law violates the supposed constitutional right to abortion. It seeks a preliminary injunction against the prohibition as the suit proceeds.

According to The Hill, the only abortion facilities in the state are operated by Planned Parenthood and are located in Anchorage and Fairbanks. The plaintiffs are seeking the law's repeal in order to expand abortion for women who may otherwise have to travel far distances to one of these abortion businesses.

“The restriction creates unnecessary barriers that fall hardest on people in rural and remote communities, survivors of violence, and those already facing economic hardship — sometimes barring patients from care entirely. Simply put, this telehealth ban is yet another unnecessary barrier to abortion access, and Alaskans deserve better,” Rebecca Gibron, president of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaiʻi, Alaska, Indiana and Kentucky, said in a statement.

The state's acting Attorney General, Cori Mills, said the state has no comment on the case.

“We will have to review the complaint and have no comment on the specific allegations,” Mills told The Hill. “As a general matter, the department will defend the law, which carries a presumption of constitutionality and represents state policy validly enacted by the legislature and the governor.”

Zoom Out:

Abortion advocates often paint abortion safety laws as onerous and a barrier; however, these laws are in place to protect women.

An in-person, physical examination prior to a chemical abortion was the standard of care for years. However, as Live Action News previously reported, in 2016 the Obama administration removed "the requirements that women or teen girls take the first drug in front of a clinician, in-person at the location of a certified prescriber and that the manufacturer report the drug’s non-fatal adverse events (complications). The drug’s allowed use was also extended for use on preborn children up to 10 weeks (70 days) of pregnancy."

The Live Action News report further states:

In April of 2021, the Biden administration FDA temporarily enabled abortion pill distribution and expanded the REMS to limited mail-order pharmacy distribution. By December of 2021, the Biden FDA had further weakened the REMS by eliminating the in-person dispensing requirement and enabling the abortion pill to be permanently shipped by mail.

In-person distribution enables a woman to receive an ultrasound and blood tests beforehand to confirm her preborn child's gestational age and to rule out an extra-uterine pregnancy or any other contraindications that may put the mother at risk. A report from the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) states that "removing the in-person dispensing requirement for the abortion pill puts women at increased risk of serious adverse events — an estimate of 13.50 percentage points higher than for in-person dispensing." 

A separate EPPC report found that nearly 11% of women (10.93%) experience sepsis, infection, hemorrhaging, or other serious or life-threatening adverse events following a mifepristone abortion — meaning one in ten women experience at least one serious complication from taking the abortion pill within 45 days. The abortion industry does not explain what a woman living in rural Alaska should do if she experiences one of these complications without direct care or oversight from a doctor.

Finally, Live Action News has documented many cases in which abusive and predatory men have coerced, forced, or tricked women into abortions the women did not want, simply because these men were able to easily access the pill through the mail. Without direct, in-person dispensation, women are at risk of suffering at the hands of such abusers.

The Bottom Line:

Telehealth restrictions are not only designed to protect preborn children from abortion — they are also intended to keep women safe.